Meeting Folks

Chad Fowler, conference organizer for RailsConf 2007, had a directive. Meet someone new. This is, of course, an issue for people who are introverted as so many software types are. With 1600 attendees, the likelihood you're going to see more than a small, small fraction is highly unlikely. In any case, it begs the question: why? The ideal case is that you meet people that you can do business with, or exchange some expertise with. Sure, there's just meeting someone new, but the likelihood that it turns to something that lasts beyond the encounter is rather low.

Today, I met a guy named John Guerin, who looks 15, but apparently is married and a recent Portlander, having lived in Virginia. He works for a financial company, but they are starting to do Rails. He used to (still does?) work for some place called Record Theory which has something to do with music, though I think it would be funny if it had been called Active Record, which is amusing for those in Rails.

I met another guy who's name I didn't catch. He's attending Portland State University, studying civil engineering, but seems to like coding, perhaps more than he likes civil engineering. I gather he's attending on student discount. Being local, he doesn't have to spend mucho dineiros for the conference. I wouldn't have thought to attend such a conference at his age.

On the tutorials day, I pair programmed a bit with Jim Gay, who apparently lives rather close by in Northern Virginia. He's attending with his business partner, whose name I think is Scott.

Of course, I mentioned Jared Richardson who wonders when I have time to write long blogs. (Speaking of which, he needs to beef up his blog entries =)).

I also talked to John(?) McAnnally or something close to that who codes but is also attempting the daunting task of documenting rails, which seems akin to having three cats sit still to get their picture taken.

I was going to say I was going to meet Chad Fowler. Who knew he was going to organize the damn conference :). Haven't met him yet though.

Well, that's it so far.